Listen Here! Should We Bribe People to be Healthy? The Philosophical Argument – a Brilliant Debate

If you listen to anything today, make it this: I have listened to this 3 times already – it’s brilliant. Eminent Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel and his audience get into some of the deep nuances in how we should try to encourage healthy behaviour.

Cash to lose weight? Is that a bribe? Subsidized broccoli? Is that an incentive? Are bribes an incentive? Cash incentives to drug addicts for sterilization?

If you listen to anything today, make it this: I have listened to this 3 times already – it’s brilliant. Eminent Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel and his audience get into some of the deep nuances in how we should try to encourage healthy behaviour.

Cash to lose weight? Is that a bribe? Subsidized broccoli? Is that an incentive? Are bribes an incentive? Cash incentives to drug addicts for sterilization?

How do you encourage people into healthy behaviour? No one has really cracked this, although junk-food advertisers appear to have mastered the opposite “Profound moral questions lie behind paying people to lose weight, quit smoking or abandon alcohol. Michael Sandel weaves through these issues with the help of philosophers past and present.”